Greenstead Road: not to be ignored

Before the inner bypass was built, Greenstead Road was the way to Wivenhoe or Brightlingsea. Branching off it, half way along, was a lane to St Andrew's church, now stranded over the other side of the busy A133, on the Greenstead Estate. Hints of the road's former life are revealed by some old houses, dotted amongst a hotch-potch of Victorian terraces, 1920s bungalows, 1960s flats, tatty trading estates and more recent mini housing developments. Among the buildings of note are the handsome Flora House (likely to be demolished according to a local informant) at the Colchester end (see picture above); the timber-framed and fascinatingly-named "Dollar Hall"; and three cottages whose orientation suggests they are located where the lane from St Andrew's joined Greenstead Road. See OS map of 1881.

I suspect Greenstead Road suffers from being a low status area as far as the planners are concerned, and perhaps that has led to the quirky mixture of buildings that make it what it is. But if planning indifference allows the loss of any of the road's significant buildings, it will be a great shame. And if any are lost and replaced with with poky little ad-hoc developments (with which this part of Colchester is awash) it would be tragic. For location, see map, waypoint 14.